Think Tank Finds `Contract' Wouldn't Help Most In Pa.

Most Pennsylvanians would not benefit from tax cuts promised in the Republican "Contract with America" and would actually be worse off, according to a leading Washington think tank.

Fewer than 8 percent of Pennsylvania's families earn the $75,000 minimum needed to qualify for the biggest tax cuts proposed by Republicans. But nearly 90 percent of Pennsylvanians rely on the programs and services most likely to be slashed to pay for tax cuts.

The study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal group that has earned the respect of conservatives for its fiscal analyses, found that the Republican contract would "cause a virtual revolution in American government."

Instead of the trickle-down economics that Republicans advocate, the contract's proposals would likely decimate "the federal social safety net" and lead to a redistribution of wealth from low and middle-income households to upper-income Americans, the report found.

But the Pennsylvania congressman who chairs the House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, which deals with many of the programs facing consolidation disputed the report's findings, says middle and low-income families will benefit from the contract.

The bottom 50 percent of American wage earners pay only 5.6 percent of income taxes, said U.S. Rep. Bill Goodling of York. People in the top 1 percent income bracket pay 27.6 percent of income taxes, he said.

Democrats have been pressuring Republicans to say where they would cut spending if the balanced budget amendment were to pass, but GOP leaders such as Majority Leader Richard Armey admit their efforts would fail if they revealed their cuts now.

Goodling admits the Republican proposals will not be painless. "If you are ever going to get to balance the budget, everyone has to take a hit," he said.

Pennsylvania also has the second highest number of senior citizens per capita. Only the wealthiest of seniors would benefit from a reduction in taxes on Social Security benefits, said Pauline Abernathy, one of the authors of the center's report.